BEND, Ore. — A local official who opposed the armed takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge has prevailed in a recall vote.
Harney County Judge Steve Grasty, the top administrator of the sparsely populated high-desert county, faced a recall vote after he refused to allow the armed protesters to use a county building for a meeting. Unofficial results Tuesday night showed about 70 percent of voters rejecting the recall effort.
The vote underscored divisions that remain in the county more than four months after the 41-day occupation ended Feb. 11. The occupiers said they were protesting federal land-use policies.
Signs calling for voters to reject the recall effort, and a few of them supporting it, were on lawns and businesses all over Burns, the county seat, and on ranch fences.
The headquarters of the 188,000-acre Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, located 30 miles south of Burns, is still closed, though refuge roads are open. Refuge manager Chad Karges said he expects the headquarters to reopen in late summer or early fall.
At more than 10,000 square miles, Harney County is the largest county in Oregon. With only 7,100 residents, it is also one of the least populated. But the world’s attention was focused on it after protesters who came from out of state and took over the refuge headquarters in January.
Grasty told The Associated Press recently that he stands by his decision to deny use of a county building to the leader of the armed group.
“He had already taken over, with firearms, a whole compound of buildings. And (the request) didn’t make sense to me, nor did it fit public policy about public safety,” Grasty said.
More than two dozen occupiers were arrested amid the takeover, and one was shot dead at a roadblock confrontation with law enforcement. Several have pleaded guilty in federal court in Portland to conspiracy in exchange for the dismissal of a charge of firearms possession in a federal facility. Most of the remaining defendants, including leader Ammon Bundy, are scheduled to go to trial Sept. 7.
